Rights and Freedoms

During the past 10 years, incarceration in Australia has risen 40 per cent. A third of this is the result of more Indigenous Australians being jailed. Indigenous Australians are now jailed at a rate more than 12 times that of non-Indigenous Australians. The Australian Law Reform Commission is conducting an inquiry into this disproportionate rate of incarceration and how the criminal justice

This paper provides an overview of national statistics pertaining to the high level of incarceration of Indigenous Australians and the socioeconomic background to that phenomenon. The paper goes on to consider how to address this issues by applying the traditional criminal justice principles of equal justice, personal responsibility, and fair punishment. National averages are useful for identifying broad trends. However,

A new report released today by the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs: Indigenous Australians and the criminal justice system, examines the very high rate of incarceration among Indigenous Australians. The report makes an original contribution through a renewed focus on core principles of justice and corrections, while being mindful of Indigenous disadvantage. It finds that despite decades

The Grattan Institute’s report demanding a new sugar tax on soft drinks is a blatant insult to the Australian people. Grattan, founded by the Rudd government, prides itself on “evidence-based” policy. Its latest work, which follows Greens policy, smacks of anything but. Sugar taxes do not work. Research has found they fail to reduce obesity and have a regressive impact

The UK government’s nanny statist food ingredients and portion size policies are now being expanded to restaurants, cafés and pubs of all sizes. The government plans to set sugar reduction targets, calorie caps for particular products such as chocolate bars and muffins, and push for smaller portion sizes. If foot outlets, of any size, don’t follow the punitive guidelines they will be named and

This week Target became the latest target of the politically correct warriors. Target’s crime of political correctness was to sell a T-shirt. A pink T-shirt for girls. The t-shirt read, “Batgirl to-do list: Dryclean cape, wash batmobile, fight crime, save the world”. And with that, the warriors launched their attack on social media. The accusations the warriors levelled at Target

A free speech revolution is just over the horizon. Several recent events are demonstrating that Australians are sick and tired of a political class that gets to decide the limits of public debate and restrict the free flow of ideas. Such a system is anti-democratic, and it is being rejected. Three key events are shaping the debate on freedom of

In 1961, Murray Rothbard, the most important libertarian economist of the 20th century, wrote about the evils of government statistics. “Statistics are the eyes and ears of the bureaucrat, the politician, the socialistic reformer. Only by statistics can they know, or at least have any idea about, what is going on in the economy … How could the government impose

A new app is doing what years of nanny state programs and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars failed to do – get people outside, on their feet and living healthier lifestyles. Pokemon GO was released only last Wednesday and is already the most popular mobile application on iPhone and Android. The game puts players in aug-mented reality, based on real

The story of what happened to Chelsea-lee Downes reveals everything that’s wrong with Australia’s attitude to innovation and risk-taking. Malcolm Turnbull and Chris Pyne’s Innovation Statement released on Monday is a good start. Less important than the statement’s billion dollars of handouts is its recognition that our attitude to innovation must change. And of course, the biggest source of opposition